The Movement

Romain’s aha! moment happened 15 years ago when a friend of his was unfortunately battling breast cancer and introduced him to the subject of toxicity in relation to our beloved skincare and beauty regimes. When The Detox Market first started in 2010, beauty and health were mutually exclusive. Toxic-free products were essentially urban myths and consumers were blissfully unaware of what exactly they were spending their money on. He simply could not understand how such processed and harmful beauty products could be sold at such unfairly high prices. “It would be as if the finest restaurants in the city were serving McDonalds to the customers on a silver platter,” he analogized. The Detox Market was Romain’s way of proposing an alternative solution to this toxic mindset and introducing a new beauty era – one where beauty and health are synonymous.

The Detox Market was Romain’s way of proposing an alternative solution to this toxic mindset and introducing a new beauty era – one where beauty and health are synonymous.

Eight years later, The Detox Market has expanded to seven stores across North America, the most recent being in New York. For Romain, the most rewarding aspect of his career is watching the beauty industry evolve and witnessing the integral role that The Detox Market has in this evolution. We’ve finally reached a place where people are genuinely curious about health & well-being and want to learn how to integrate these concepts into their beauty routines. The Detox Market serves as a platform to connect a growing community of like-minded people through conversation and education.

For Romain, environmentalism is not about perfection. Rather, it’s a slow process that involves gradually introducing and integrating new, conscious choices and habits.

How We Can Detox Our Environment

For Romain, environmentalism is not about perfection. Rather, it’s a slow process (although social media seems to have sped up this process) that involves gradually introducing and integrating new, conscious choices and habits. “It’s all about changing your mindset and then changing everyone else’s mindset,” he affirms. Splitting his time between LA and NYC, he’s noticed little changes like increased paper bag usage in grocery stores, the uprise of reusable water bottles, and the evolution from plastic straws, to paper, to metal. Although these changes seem minuscule, every person who participates is contributing to a larger scale, meaningful impact in helping the environment.

It’s all about changing your mindset and then changing everyone else’s mindset.

Romain is also a passionate advocate for electric cars and drives one himself. This choice did not come without criticism from friends, who consistently warned him that this lifestyle change would be difficult to upkeep. He refutes this by emphasizing that the dangers of pollution far supersede the minor inconvenience of electrically charging a vehicle– which is actually no inconvenience at all, according to Romain.

TDM Current Hits

“I love Odacité’s All-Embracing Serum and using it with their gua sha; sometimes we’ll have events at The Detox Market where we provide gua sha facials to our customers and they really enjoy it. I also really like Innersense Shampoo; a spectacular haircare line with great founders. My third favorite, I’d say, is Kure Bazaar nail polish; even though I don’t wear nail polish myself, I just love their branding and everyone who wears their nail polish loves the products.”

A Sustainable Diet

Aside from his passion for clean beauty, Romain makes regular appearances in the kitchen. He believes that our eating and purchasing habits provoke common sustainability issues which help shape his personal cooking style. Specifically, the American population produces immense amounts of food waste; about 30-40 percent of the food we buy, we throw away. For Romain, this means not overstuffing his refrigerator as forgotten produce wastes away in the back of his fridge. “I never use a recipe,” he explains. “What I love to do is to look at what’s already in my fridge and figure out what to make with what I have.”

About 30-40 percent of the food we buy, we throw away.

Right now, that dish is typically pasta – a versatile base that welcomes experimentation and a variety of ingredients. Vegan noodle soup is the next item Romain hopes to perfect eventually, after being inspired by his favorite vegan Vietnamese restaurant in LA.

Tricks of the Trade

When asked about his best-kept beauty/wellness secrets, Romain resonated with Clémence von Mueffling about the importance of double-cleansing, especially in polluted cities.

His other secret is known as The Shadow Rule. There’s no need to drench yourself in sunscreen first thing when you wake up. Alternatively, be aware of your shadow – if it’s taller than you, you’re okay to be in the sun. But if your shadow is your height or shorter, you should be out of the sun because that’s when the rays are at its strongest and most harmful. Take it from the LA local!

Alicia Zhang

Originally from Los Angeles, Alicia lived in Shanghai for 11 years before moving back to the states to attend the University of Miami, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in public relations and minors in art and philosophy. Currently residing in New York City, Alicia applies her knowledge of strategic communication and design in her career. She enjoys painting, rugby, exploring, and more often than not, you’ll find her petting someone’s dog.

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We’ve finally reached a place where people are genuinely curious about health and well-being, and want to learn how to integrate these concepts in their beauty routines.